Poojary, Dharam Singh, Kharge, Jaffer Sharief, Bangarappa to contest polls

New Delhi/Bangalore, March 31 : After several days of hectic parlyes in New Delhi on selecting candidates for the 15th Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Saturday evening announced the list of candidates for 22 constituencies in Karnataka. The party high command has given tickets to almost all Congress veterans in the State. The party is expected to announce candidates to remaining six seats (total 28 seats in Karnataka) in a couple of days.

Two former Chief Ministers N. Dharam Singh and S. Bangarappa have been given tickets to contest the elections from Bidar and Shimoga constituencies, respectively, while former Union Minister B. Janardhana Poojary will enter the poll fray from Dakshina Kannada constituency.

While leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka legislative Assembly Mallikarjun Kharge has been asked to contest from Gulbarga reserve constituency, Congress veteran and former Union Railway Minister C. K. Jaffer Sharief will file his nomination papers to contest from Bangalore north.

Poojary, Dharam, Bangarappa

Sangliana, Kharge, Sharief

Tejaswini, Muniyappa

Former Bangalore City Police Commissioner and sitting MP, H. T. Sangliana, who recently quit the BJP and joined the Congress, has been given ticket to contest from Bangalore Central while Tejaswini Ramesh will contest from Bangalore Rural Constituency against former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (S). Both Tejaswini and Kumaraswamy belonged to Vokkaliga community and it is likely to be clash of titans.

Former Minister and Kuruba leader of Mysore H. Vishwanath has been given ticket contest from Mysore constituency while Union Minister for K. H. Muniyappa will try his electoral fortunes from Kolar reserve constituency. B. Shivaram will take on former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in Hassan.

Candidates for other constituencies are: Belgaum - Amarasimha Patil, Tumkur- Kodanda Ramaiah, Chitradurga- Tippeswamy, Bellary - N. Y. Hanumanthappa, Bijapur- Prakash Rathod, Bagalkot - J.G. Patil, Koppal- Basavaraja Rayaraddy, Belgaum- Prakash Hukkeri, Dharwad - Manjunath Kunur, and Davanagere - S. S. Mallikarjunaiah.

The Congress has not announced candidates for six constituencies and they are- Bangalore South, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkaballapur, Mandya, and Chamarajanagar.

The former Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Mallikarjun Kharge, who is sitting member of the Legislative Assembly, is contesting Parliamentary elections for the first time. He was elected to the assembly for the record 9 times.
Mr. Janardhana Poojarys selection was on the expected lines since there are good number of Billava community members in the district, which has faced communal clashes recently. S. Bangarappa, who recenlty quit the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh, will take on B.S. Raghavendra, son of Chief Miniser B.S. Yeddyurappa in Shimoga. Mr. Bangarappa contesting third Lok Sabha election in five years. In 2004 he elected on BJP ticket and later quit that party and contested from SP. Now he is contesting from Congress again.